Mr HOWARD (Prime Minister) (3:04 PM) —Mr Speaker, I seek the indulgence of the chair to add to an answer.

The SPEAKER —The Prime Minister may proceed.

Mr HOWARD —I was asked a question by the Leader of the Opposition at the commencement of question time about economic performance over the last year. He sought through that question to unfavourably contrast the performance of the Australian economy with that of a number of comparable economies. I have been provided with some information that has been drawn from the OECD quarterly national accounts and it tracks average growth through the year since the beginning of the year 2000. These are the growth rates: Belgium, 1.8 per cent; Britain, 2.6 per cent; Canada, three per cent; Denmark, 1.5 per cent; France, two per cent; Germany, one per cent; Holland, 1.2 per cent; Japan, 1.3 per cent; Spain, 2.9 per cent; Sweden, 2.4 per cent; Switzerland, 1.3 per cent; the United States, 2.7 per cent; and, over that same period, Australia, 3.2 per cent.